1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to hand-portable molded plastic closable, resealable containers for storing multiple pieces of several different objects of the same general kind, and in particular to lightweight, easily transported, robust, molded plastic storage containers with repeatedly closable covers fitted to a plurality of individual cells for storing several dozen or more different objects of the same general size and type, such as surface mount resistors of different values, in a single container, while permitting them to be readily supplied or removed from any given cell.
2. Discussion
Presently, collections of like miniature electrical components such as surface mount resistors ("SMRs") and surface mount capacitors ("SMCs"), are marketed in a variety of different forms. For example, SMRs of the 5% tolerance type have approximately 120 different values. The occasional user represented by the typical "hands-on" engineer, technician, professor or serious hobbyist prefers to have immediately available a full set of surface mount devices, i.e., at least several to several dozen of each value.
At present, the surface mount resistors are provided by their manufacturers to their customers in a variety of classic packages. One known way of packaging, shipping and storing the surface mount components is to package them in the familiar see-through flexible plastic bags made of a thin film of polyethylene or like plastic sheet. However, the typical bag, once opened, cannot be resealed. Even the plastic bags having a resealable closure mechanisms are not all that convenient, and do not always work as intended. The failure of known packages is particularly evident in the case of small surface mount components, since they could become accidentally lodged in the zipper (or other closure) of the bag during an attempted closing. Further, an amorphously shaped bag is an inconvenient way to store and access the components repeatedly over a lengthy period of time. Such bags do not stack well, and they can be punctured relatively easily. Thus, the typical user, such as a laboratory technician, may well want to reload small components package in such polyethylene bags into yet another container, such as the familiar plastic pill bottle with its removable cap, for long-term storage, so that they can be easily accessed from time to time as needed.
A second packaging technique is to have the surface mount components stuck on a roll or reel of tape. The tape typically has three layers: The base layer, which is made of thin paper; the middle layer, which is made of the paper thicker than the components; and the top layer, which is made of thin transparent plastic film. The base layer holds the components, the middle layer has cut rectangular windows for housing the components, and the top layer stops the components from coming out the middle layer and provides transparent windows for reading the value marks on the components if there are any. The top layer can be peeled off to reveal as many surface mount components as desired at one time. Typically, such reels of the tape hold 1,000 or 5,000 identical components, and are prepared at the manufacturer's factory. Accordingly, even one such tape reel provides a much larger amount of components than the typical technician, engineer, professor, hobbyist or other occasional user would ever wish to experiment with. Locating the right reel among one hundred plus of them and peeling off the top layer to unload the components is not convenient. Loading back unused components is impossible.
One company, namely CRCW of Norfolk, Nebraska, sells these reels of tape to customers through the Allied Electronics sales catalog (a nationwide mail order electronics parts catalog). CRCW provides 1,000 identical components on a single reel of tape and 100 reels in a set. However, the users of such reels of tape still have a significant storage problem because they must provide shelf space for the storage of 100 reels of tape, one for each of the 100 resistor values.
A third packaging technique for surface mount components involves little plastic bottles with individual covers. These bottles or vials of components are also sold in lots of 5,000 or 10,000. This is far more than any person who is even a very serious occasional user would need for an individual component value. Only in a production situation would it be likely that so many components would be required, and in that situation only the components of certain values required will be ordered for the planned production runs. Assembling such a great quantity (at least 100) of bottles together requires a large space and locating the right one as needed is not convenient.
A fourth known way of storing these components is the use of a cassette of components. These thin tape-like cassettes (like the familiar audiotape cassettes) are used for special pick-and-place automated equipment frequently used by manufacturers of circuit boards and the like. These cassettes of surface mount components are useful in that they are so designed as to feed one component to an automated machine which will pick up the component and place it on a printed circuit board for subsequent automated soldering. However, these cassettes are necessarily expensive (since they contain a large number of components, usually over 5,000 pieces), and again present problems of storage, since storing over 100 of them takes a fair amount of space, as do the individual vials or reels of tape, and inconvenient access.
In addition, the typical occasional user will want to organize his electrical components, which requires both labels and shelf space for all of the bags or containers such as vials, so that they are easy to access when needed. Providing appropriate labels, and creating an easy-to-read, well-organized system for storage in order for the components to be handy and readily available when needed represents extra work for the user. A typical user, in his workshop or lab, may provide a shelf of storage bins with compartments therein, or large cabinets with door having shelves therein. To gain access to given component value, such a user would in fact have to open the door, find the right bin or tray, pull out the appropriate container, open the container, pick up the surface mount component within the vial or reel that he wishes to use, and then return the container to its place on the shelf or in the bin or tray, and then shut the door to the cabinet from which it came. Such a multi-step process to access a specific component is time-consuming and not convenient, especially to a user working at an already-crowded workbench.
The storage and access problems are worse for the user who travels about and wishes to take with him all of the different containers so that he will have all of the different component values available to him at another site. Consider the electronics trouble-shooter who is supposed to repair a disabled electronics device or system in the field. That person will likely not know ahead of time which component value he will need to replace. Thus, he may need to take a fairly complete collection of component values on the road with him during his field service missions. This transportation of different components might be necessary or desirable for others who may have to move from one laboratory to another, or do repairs in the field, or at a customer's plant, or the like. But the bulkiness of many individual storage containers to transport and arrange for effective quick access would present considerable problems to such a person.
Many of the above-described packaging and storage techniques share common problems. For example, typical surface mount resistors are very small. They may be stored in a very small space, perhaps two to four milliliters in size, for approximately 500 identical components. This means that the size of the bottle, tape reel, or storage cassette is typically many times larger than the actual size of the surface components. This is one of the reasons why storing 100 or more containers, each having hundreds of an identical value of a particular component, ends up taking a fair amount of space, and represents an unwelcome chore.
When needing a component of a particular value, the user has to locate the right bottle, tape reel, or storage cassette first. This is not always easy as there are typically over one hundred of them crowded in one place. The situation is worsened as the user needs to put a component back since one of his hands may now be occupied holding that component. Furthermore, in the case of the tape reel, putting the component back is not possible. Throwing away components wastes money as some of these components cost over ten cents per unit.
In like manner, other tiny electronic components such as surface mount capacitors and surface mount inductors, which also come in dozens of different values, need to be stored in a convenient manner. All of the foregoing problems of storage discussed with respect to surface mount resistors generally also applies to surface mount capacitors. Thus, for an electronic technician or engineer to carry about a full complement of all values of these passive electronic components would require that person to walk around with well more than one hundred storage containers. This is quite cumbersome and/or impractical in the field, or in an environment like a large company or a university, where research and circuit board repair may be or is carried on in a few different locations or sites, between which the various containers full of components need be shuttled.
There are still other problems with these known storage methods. The small individual containers can be easily knocked over. Also, sometimes a soldering iron or other heat source may accidentally be placed in close proximity to an individual container or plastic bag and might cause damage through melting. Further, the thin plastic films bags can be punctured quite easily, with a possible spilling and loss of components through the hole or tear in the bag. Another problem is that the labeling of the component values may not be provided in a convenient easy-to-read style by the manufacturer on its packaging. Even when easy-to-read labels are provided, there is still the problem of arranging the individual storage containers or bags with their labels all oriented the same way to make them easy to read at a glance, when they are stored on a shelf or in large bins or drawers.
There is one kind of plastic box which has a plurality of cells, such as eight, ten or twelve to perhaps about fifteen or twenty-four, with a single lid that covers all of the cells at once. These familiar rigid all-plastic containers may be opaque or translucent, or they may be substantially transparent, so that objects stored within the individual cells can be viewed easily. Such plastic boxes are often found for sale in hardware stores as empty containers and are sold so the user can use them to store whatever he wants. In other cases, the containers are sold with a complement of different size objects of the same kind therein, such as a collection of flat washers, or a collection of hex nuts, or a collection of machine screws or the like. But these single-lid boxes generally do not have enough number of cells for storing well over 100 different values of surface mount electronic components. Also, since the lid is not tight enough, often the box allows for the contents of the individual cells to be easily mixed if the box is accidentally jostled or bumped severely even when the lid is closed.
Still one more approach for storing multiple small objects of the same basic type is to provide a plastic box having a plurality of cells, such as four or six or seven or eight or up to 28 or 32, with individual plastic covers for each cell. In this arrangement, the individual cells can be opened one at a time, without disturbing the covers or the contents of the other cells. As before, these familiar rigid all-plastic containers may be opaque, translucent, or substantially transparent. These storage containers are often sold in drugstores as empty containers so the user can store his or her own medicine in the form of pills or tablets that are to be taken during the day or the week or the month. One such plastic pill box, called a "daily box," has eight individual cells in a 2-by-4 cell arrangement for taking medicine at regular intervals eight times a day. Another such box, called a "weekly box," has seven cells in a single row, each with individual cover. The weekly box is designed to make it easy to store and take one cell's worth of medicine, once a day, for an entire week. Another box, called the "monthly box," has 28 cells, each with a separate cover.
In all three types of boxes (daily, weekly, monthly), the covers are typically connected to the adjacent side or back of the cell by a living hinge or other flexible plastic portion. The covers typically snap into place in some way. A mechanical latch made of the same plastic may be used, or an interference fit between complementary mating members of the lid and one or more side wall surfaces of the cell may be used.
Limited by the number of cells, these small multiple-cell pill boxes are clearly inadequate for conveniently storing large numbers of surface mount components having different values, such as over 100 different values of components. The multi-cell boxes with individual covers on the cells largely overcomes the problem of accidentally mixing components in a single-lid box when the lid is open. But there is the chance than an individual lid will not be fastened securely over its cell. If an individual lid is not shut tight or left open accidentally, there is the chance that the contents of that cell will be spilled. Also, these multiple-cell boxes generally do not have a particularly convenient surface on the lid upon which to securely place an easily read label.
Accordingly, a system of organizing and storing small items such as miniature electrical components remains wanting.
In light of the foregoing needs, one object of the present invention is to provide a new container system which overcomes these problems in a way that enhances the convenient access for the user, and is cost-effective too.
A related object of the present invention is to provide a container having multiple individual cells with each cell having its own cover, while having a master cover.
A further related object of the present invention is to provide such a container having a main lid which covers and protects the compartment housing the individual cells and their covers.
A related object of the present invention is to provide the covers of the individual cells with a tab that can be readily opened and closed by the operator.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide areas on the tabs which allow for the attachment of easily read labels.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a container and a main lid which are formed so as to stack, top-to-bottom, with other containers.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such a container which is formed from a resilient yet light weight material such as a plastic, so that the cost is low and the serviceable lifetime is long.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become clear upon reading the following summary and detailed description of the parts container of the present invention.